Review: Acer’s Iconia W700 is an Ultrabook in a tablet’s body

The tablet balances size, performance, and battery life with some success.

Enlarge / The Acer Iconia W700 tablet with its included cradle and Bluetooth keyboard.

Andrew Cunningham

Our Windows 8 device reviews so far have focused on two types of computers: laptops (like Dell's XPS 12) that attempt to convert themselves into chunky tablets, and Windows RT tablets (like the Asus VivoTab RT) that plug into some sort of keyboard accessory to become awkward laptops.

Acer's Iconia W700 is neither: it's a pure 11.6-inch tablet with no keyboard dock or flippable screen, but like Microsoft's upcoming Surface Pro it includes Intel's Ultrabook-class Ivy Bridge processors rather than the ARM or Atom processors used by other Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets.

This has implications for the tablet's size, weight, battery life, and performance—does the W700 strike the right balance, or will we have to keep on waiting to get a good high-performance tablet? Let's dig in.

Body and build quality

Enlarge/ The W700 is a nicely built tablet with a great 1080p screen, though it's a bit less responsive to touch input than others we've tested.

The W700's speedy processor means that it needs more battery and cooling than most ARM tablets, and it shows in the tablet's size and weight: it's 0.5" thick and weighs 2.1 pounds, a noticeable step up from the Microsoft Surface's 0.37" and 1.5 pounds. If you're already used to the balance of a widescreen tablet, you can take the W700 pretty much anywhere a Surface or Nexus 10 would go—it's still a much better tablet than even the best of the convertible laptops we've seen so far, and the steadily improving state of the Windows 8 app store is making it a bit easier to get things done without needing to jump to the desktop (though most Windows apps are still going to run on the desktop for the foreseeable future).

During use, the most notable difference wasn't its size, but its fans. ARM processors have gotten us used to quiet, fan-less tablets, but the W700 has a pair of vents on its top edge to help dissipate that Ivy Bridge CPU's heat. The noise isn't deafening but it's definitely audible, and once the tablet has been on for a few minutes they seldom shut off even if you're just sitting idle at the Start screen. The fans also kick up to a more audible whine when the tablet is under load. The volume is in line with the fans in most Ultrabooks, but psychologically it takes some time to get used to that sound emanating from a tablet.

Weight and thickness aside, the tablet feels good to hold—its aluminum back and sides are solid and don't flex, and the texture makes the tablet easy to grip without feeling too "grippy," like the Nexus 10. All of its ports, buttons, and switches are located on its left, right, and top edges—the orientation lock is on the top; the power and volume buttons and headphone jack are on the right; and the single full-size USB 3.0 port, micro HDMI port, and power jack are on the left. Two tinny-but-listenable stereo speakers adorn the tablet's bottom edge, but unfortunately there's not an SD card slot to be found on either the tablet itself or its included dock.

Enlarge/ The Ivy Bridge CPU necessitates a pair of fan vents on the top edge, which can be slightly distracting. Note the screen orientation lock.

Andrew Cunningham

Enlarge/ Most of the tablet's ports—a micro HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, and a power jack—are on its professionally tuned left side.

Andrew Cunningham

Enlarge/ The headphone jack, volume rocker, and power button are on the right side. The power button is a bit mushy, and it didn't always respond the first time we pressed it.

Almost all of the tablet's front face is consumed by its screen and bezel, with the exception of the narrow aluminum strip along the bottom that houses the physical Windows button. The screen itself is a mix of good and not-as-good—the 1920×1080 resolution and excellent viewing angles of the bright, colorful IPS panel are a definite high point. The touch part of the display is slightly less great—there's a fair amount of flex in the glass, and while in general the display was good at picking up touch input, we had more trouble than usual swiping in from the edges to invoke the Charms menu or switch between apps.

Compared to the 1366×768 display in the Surface, an 11.6-inch 1080p display also causes a few problems in the desktop environment depending on whether you're using the tablet with a mouse and keyboard or trying to navigate with touch. If you're using primarily touch, you'll definitely want to scale the desktop to 125 or 150 percent to make buttons and UI elements more tappable—the Start screen and apps do a pretty good job of scaling automatically to take advantage of the extra pixel density, though.

Accessories

Enlarge/ The W700 comes with a decent external Bluetooth keyboard, but no mouse.

Andrew Cunningham

Most of the Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets we've looked at so far have been convertibles, computers that try to take advantage of the new operating system's split personality. The W700 accomplishes this not by use of a keyboard dock, but with a pair of accessories—a cradle-like dock and a brown faux-leather case—that help prop it up when it's not in tablet mode.

The dock serves as a charging cradle, three-port USB 3.0 hub, and monitor stand, but it's obviously not meant to be mobile—it's much too chunky for that. Rather, it's something that sits on your kitchen counter or desk for when you want to connect a keyboard and mouse. A Bluetooth chiclet keyboard with a decent layout and good key travel is included, but you'll have to bring your own mouse.

The kickstand on the back of the dock is solid and can be used to prop the tablet up in either landscape or portrait mode, but it's not adjustable. That one angle is good for desk use, but if you put it on your kitchen counter (or another place where you're likely to be looking down at it while standing rather than sitting) it becomes less useful. Small holes at the bottom of the dock also amplify the tablet's built-in speakers, though they don't fix the fact that you're still listening to small integrated speakers with no bass to speak of.

Enlarge/ The dock has a removable but non-adjustable kickstand, three USB 3.0 ports, and a power plug, but no SD card slot. The tablet's micro HDMI port remains accessible when docked.

Andrew Cunningham

Enlarge/ The dock also allows you to prop the tablet up in portrait mode.

Andrew Cunningham

Enlarge/ The stand includes handy instructions on how to use it, including "don't take it in both of your hands and snap it in half, you idiot."

Andrew Cunningham

The worst thing about this dock is probably its bulky, plasticky construction, which stands in contrast to the solid body of the tablet itself. It would also be much more useful with an SD card slot and an adjustable stand.

The tablet's carrying case is more helpful when you're away from the desk. An included instruction sheet shows you how to fold it into two different "modes"—a "video mode" that props the tablet up at a steep angle, and a "typing mode" that props it up at a shallower one. Functionally it's similar to one of Apple's Smart Covers, but it covers the tablet completely, thus offering a bit more protection.

Both of these accessories are nice to have (as is the included micro HDMI to VGA dongle), though neither really tries to replicate the laptop experience if that's something you're looking for. Acer says that the follow-up to the W700 will have an accompanying case-and-stand accessory with an integrated Bluetooth keyboard to make the tablet a bit more plausible as a laptop replacement.

For the price, the lack of an active digitizer is a huge fail, for me at least. It's too bad, because a lot of the rest actually sounded fairly nice.

Personally speaking, that's the huge selling point to me on a more expensive full pc tablet. I can use a media consumption tablet (android/iPad/Touchpad/etc) for scrolling through web pages, ereading, mail, etc. What I can't do on a media consumption tablet is use it for taking notes in meetings, classes, etc, without having to really "set up" by taking out a keyboard and putting everything down on a desk. I type faster on a mechanical keyboard than I write, but I write faster than I can type on an onscreen keyboard, and especially faster than I can do so while holding the tablet cradled against one arm. For me it's a huge difference in actual productivity and what makes the extra few hundred dollars in cost actually worth it.

And while I could just bring a $1 pad of paper along with a media consumption tablet, the $1 pads of paper start to add up in weight and volume when you're talking about a few hundred pages of notes, in multiple categories/subjects. And it's one more thing to juggle. They also don't have full text search based on handwriting recognition that (surprise) actually works. /misses her Dell XT and OneNote.

I know this is a nitpick, but ugh, it looks so cheap with the way it's covered in crappy logos and labels. I mean "Professionally Tuned"? It's an Acer, I get that, but I'm ready for the PC world to move on from the low rent Nascar look.

Three hundred dollars, for a nice laptop with a really nice screen in tablet factor? Aren't you demanding! It isn't an Android! And yes it is a REALLY nice screen, I know because I own one and I love it, aside from some annoyances in Windows 8 itself of course. The only thing I regret about the price is the 64GB SSD, I wish it was 128GB at the price I paid.

I haven't had any problems with the touch screen, it seems quite sensitive to me. When I first got it out of the box, the wifi was flaky, but two patch and reboot cycles fixed it. The included Bluetooth keyboard was rubbish for me, it has a weird bug where sometimes only half of the keys work. I like the case, except they forgot to cut out the camera hole on the back (it's not a "real" camera anyway, it's for taking pics of notes and that's about it)

Performance is very good, I'm running visual studio and whatnot, and most games run just fine. Not Skyrim obviously, but that's the only game I play for which I need to steal my husband's gaming rig from him

Why don't they make something like this with a dual core i3/i5 instead of an i7? Performance should be fine, maybe you get an extra hour of battery and quieter fans, and also save $100 or $200 off sticker in a way that most consumers won't particularly notice...

I know this is a nitpick, but ugh, it looks so cheap with the way it's covered in crappy logos and labels. I mean "Professionally Tuned"? It's an Acer, I get that, but I'm ready for the PC world to move on from the low rent Nascar look.

I agree, those logos and stickers need to go. This is one thing Apple does absolutely right. How about no logos and a brushed aluminum Acer or Windows logo on the back? Is that so hard?

Why don't they make something like this with a dual core i3/i5 instead of an i7? Performance should be fine, maybe you get an extra hour of battery and quieter fans, and also save $100 or $200 off sticker in a way that most consumers won't particularly notice...

This does use a dual-core i5. :-)

The mobile i7s are all dual-core anyway, so there's not a massive difference in power consumption.

Why don't they make something like this with a dual core i3/i5 instead of an i7? Performance should be fine, maybe you get an extra hour of battery and quieter fans, and also save $100 or $200 off sticker in a way that most consumers won't particularly notice...

This does use a dual-core i5. :-)

The mobile i7s are all dual-core anyway, so there's not a massive difference in power consumption.

The ulv models are all dual core, but you have mobile quad-core i7, just look at the 15" macbook pro.

I can use a media consumption tablet (android/iPad/Touchpad/etc) for scrolling through web pages, ereading, mail, etc. What I can't do on a media consumption tablet is use it for taking notes in meetings, classes, etc, without having to really "set up" by taking out a keyboard and putting everything down on a desk.

The price is actually pretty reasonable if you frame it in the context of other Ultrabooks - the 11" MacBook Air, just to cherry pick a prominent example, is $999, but has 64GB less storage, a 1366x768 non-IPS non-touch display, and slightly worse battery life. Acer's model also comes with those extra pack-ins.

This one's a "pure" tablet though, and not a convertible, so it invites some iPad/Nexus/Surface price comparisons that are much less flattering.

My office has this exact model tablet and I've played with it extensively (it sits in my desk drawer). Though I should add that the model we have is a Core i3 1.8Ghz (instead of the Core i5 reviewed here). But on the plus side it was $799 (instead of $999.) Here are my comments, Now with BENCHMARKS:

Sunspider = 212ms (vs. i5 at 151ms and the iPad4 at 899ms) *lower is better*Octane V1 = 3095 (vs. i5 at 4269 and the iPad4 at 1782) *higher is better*GeekBench = 3507 (vs. i5 at 7160 and the iPad4 at 1781) *higher is better*

- I never noticed the fans. I didn't realize it had fans until I read this review. Ergo, I disagree with the assessment that the fans are annoying. EDIT: Listening to this tablet, I only hear noise when it is benchmarking and it requires me to put my ear right up to the vent and listen carefully. It's really below the noise floor. Totally unnoticeable.

- The dock is neither chunky nor overly plasticky in construction. Yes, it's made of plastic, but I found it perfectly workable as a desk docking station. It's not meant to be moved around. The wireless bluetooth keyboard works well, too. Pairs simply and easily with the tablet.

- Battery life IS surprisingly good for a full-blown Core i3 tablet (6 hours!) And yes, it is really quite snappy, too. It IS a Core i3, after all.

- The lack of SD card slot, in some respects, is a bit of an oversight, but was probably more of an engineering challenge. At no time while using this tablet have I thought, "Gee, I could really use an SD card slot." (but that's just me.)

- I kinda wish there was a GigE port on the dock, but I suppose if you really need GigE, you can just get a USB3-to-GigE adapter and be done with it.

- The faux leather cover for the tablet is a very nice addition especially with all the ways you can fold it over to prop up the tablet. There is even a velcro flap with can unsnap to expose the camera so that you can take pictures without having to remove the tablet from the leather cover.

- The 5MP camera is pretty mediocre. It's about as good as any other run-of-the-mill smartphone camera. It takes pictures, but is nothing to write home about. The 2MP front-facing camera is also pretty middling. Useful for Skype, etc.

- Like many PCs, this tablet comes pre-loaded with Acer crapware. I seem to recall it having a trial version of McAfee installed and the Desktop icon on the Start page looked like some Acer custom "hub". It's just the button for the desktop, but I didn't realize it was the desktop button until after using it for a few days. That was confusing. It would have been nicer if Acer had just used a standard Windows desktop icon instead.

- Some of the pre-loaded software is decent, though. There is an image editing app that is better than the Win8 standard app.

That's all I can think of. I'll add more later if I come up with anything.

Why don't they make something like this with a dual core i3/i5 instead of an i7? Performance should be fine, maybe you get an extra hour of battery and quieter fans, and also save $100 or $200 off sticker in a way that most consumers won't particularly notice...

This does use a dual-core i5. :-)

The mobile i7s are all dual-core anyway, so there's not a massive difference in power consumption.

The ulv models are all dual core, but you have mobile quad-core i7, just look at the 15" macbook pro.

Sorry, right, I meant the ULV series of CPUs used in Ultrabooks (and in this tablet). The quad-core i7 QM chips bump the TDP from 17W all the way up to 35-45W.

The price is actually pretty reasonable if you frame it in the context of other Ultrabooks - the 11" MacBook Air, just to cherry pick a prominent example, is $999, but has 64GB less storage, a 1366x768 non-IPS non-touch display, and slightly worse battery life. Acer's model also comes with those extra pack-ins.

This one's a "pure" tablet though, and not a convertible, so it invites some iPad/Nexus/Surface price comparisons that are much less flattering.

Even at $999, I like the thought of having a handheld personal HTPC I can roam around the house with, and stream stuff from my home server to. Would make a nice full-fledged PC you can easily take on trips too. A fanless design is a must have though for a low power device that is so expensive. Fans breaking aren't a question of if, but when.

I know this is a nitpick, but ugh, it looks so cheap with the way it's covered in crappy logos and labels. I mean "Professionally Tuned"? It's an Acer, I get that, but I'm ready for the PC world to move on from the low rent Nascar look.

I agree, those logos and stickers need to go. This is one thing Apple does absolutely right. How about no logos and a brushed aluminum Acer or Windows logo on the back? Is that so hard?

Are you kidding me? lol. Macbooks have the largest logo anywhere. Not that I could get by with a Mac, but even if I could, I probably wouldn't buy it just because of the humongous Apple logo. And as if the size wasn't enough, Apple had to light it up brightly so everyone within 50m knows you own a Mac. I guess it's a selling point to some but it's an epic failure of style as far as I am concerned.

OK, neither the device or OS are perfect yet, but this sounds like a pretty good tablet when you want a tablet, and a pretty good PC when that's what you need. Give them Haswell and Win 8 SP 1 and tablets that can't do it all are going to start looking pretty cheap and pointless.

Are you kidding me? lol. Macbooks have the largest logo anywhere. Not that I could get by with a Mac, but even if I could, I probably wouldn't buy it just because of the humongous Apple logo. And as if the size wasn't enough, Apple had to light it up brightly so everyone within 50m knows you own a Mac. I guess it's a selling point to some but it's an epic failure of style as far as I am concerned.

Yes, because a Wifi, HDMI, 'professionally tuned' and what-ever-else-logo on the bezel looks as if it were designed to be part of the package and not slapped on for some idiotic reason.

As for the Apple logo? They're called 'decals'. But the logo really isn't your actual problem with them, now is it?

I've had mine for almost two weeks and love it. The only drawbacks so far have been the 64GB (wish I would've gone for the 128GB) and the lack of digitizer. I've read of people upgrading the drive, so maybe that's an option.

I've quit bringing my laptop home on weekends and evenings and I never touch my iPad anymore. As far as working full time on the device, I can easily plug an external USB dock (i.e. a Toshiba Dynadock) and work on dual monitors in a desktop setting (primarily running Visual Studio and Office apps). And now that I've become used to it, using the onscreen keyboard for notes and in meetings has worked well.

My role has been to test the viability of a Windows 8 tablet device as a complete Laptop/iPad replacement for our entire sales staff. While I don't know if this will be the device (vs. Surface Pro, or Lenovo's device), we have concluded that Windows 8 in this form factor is definitely the route to take.

Wow this actually looks pretty nice (minus all the stickers/logos). My only problem is gadget overload. I'm at a point where even if something really nice and new comes out I just don't have a good enough reason to get it. My iPad already gets touched hardly at all, since if I need light browsing my phone is great or if its work time the desktop is perfect. Its a shame too, I love the look and feel of the iPad. I'm past the point of carrying it in my bag everywhere I go just because I have it. Someone give me a good reason to get this! (that my wife will approve of)

Are you kidding me? lol. Macbooks have the largest logo anywhere. Not that I could get by with a Mac, but even if I could, I probably wouldn't buy it just because of the humongous Apple logo. And as if the size wasn't enough, Apple had to light it up brightly so everyone within 50m knows you own a Mac. I guess it's a selling point to some but it's an epic failure of style as far as I am concerned.

Yes, because a Wifi, HDMI, 'professionally tuned' and what-ever-else-logo on the bezel looks as if it were designed to be part of the package and not slapped on for some idiotic reason.

As for the Apple logo? They're called 'decals'. But the logo really isn't your actual problem with them, now is it?

Hmm..looks like I pressed a hot button for some people. Did I say I liked Acer's stickers on this unit? No. I agree they are bad. But at least one can remove them. Not so with Apple's gigantic fruit logo. Like I wrote above, yes, there's a bigger problem with Macs for me -- it can't do too many things I can do on my PC. But the 2nd biggest reason would indeed be the gigantic 'decal' it carries. I just don't like to be a very obvious walking ad for Apple or anyone else when I can avoid it. I prefer understated looks for all things I buy.

This is so close to what I'm looking for. Just in case someone who can create such a system is reading this, what I want is:

1) Ability to "dock" this system at home or anywhere I can find a dock (work, airports, ...)2) Ability to use the device in a "limited" mode when not docked. * Content consumption. * Limited content creation if I'm willing to add to my travel kit.

My point is that I think we're past the necessity of a "tablet" being a bridge device and should be able to use them as "fully fledged" computers in their own right. My goal is to be able to make a living as a content creator (I'm a software developer) and not have three different devices (workstation, tablet, smartphone) when one will do. I've already taken the first step and said "no" to the smartphone. I see the use of the tablet as a bridge device and "fill in" for those that want a computer, but don't need it for more than content consumption and email.

Why can't I have a "tablet" that can drive two monitors when docked, allows me to use the touch screen as a pointer along with a mouse, and allows me to take my machine with me at a moment's notice?

Besides, that is, the drop in shipping hardware by "requiring" me to own a tablet and a desktop.

I know this is a nitpick, but ugh, it looks so cheap with the way it's covered in crappy logos and labels. I mean "Professionally Tuned"? It's an Acer, I get that, but I'm ready for the PC world to move on from the low rent Nascar look.

I agree, those logos and stickers need to go. This is one thing Apple does absolutely right. How about no logos and a brushed aluminum Acer or Windows logo on the back? Is that so hard?

Are you kidding me? lol. Macbooks have the largest logo anywhere. Not that I could get by with a Mac, but even if I could, I probably wouldn't buy it just because of the humongous Apple logo. And as if the size wasn't enough, Apple had to light it up brightly so everyone within 50m knows you own a Mac. I guess it's a selling point to some but it's an epic failure of style as far as I am concerned.

Seems like an apples-and-oranges comparison to me.

1. Company logo on rear of laptop screen (Apple, HP, most manufacturers) -- can't see it when I'm using device

2. Heaps of stickers on front of display (or, for laptops, also on keyboard (the tradition for Windows laptops, luckily we're getting away from that) -- can't avoid them when I'm using device

For the price, the lack of an active digitizer is a huge fail, for me at least. It's too bad, because a lot of the rest actually sounded fairly nice.

Personally speaking, that's the huge selling point to me on a more expensive full pc tablet. I can use a media consumption tablet (android/iPad/Touchpad/etc) for scrolling through web pages, ereading, mail, etc. What I can't do on a media consumption tablet is use it for taking notes in meetings, classes, etc, without having to really "set up" by taking out a keyboard and putting everything down on a desk. I type faster on a mechanical keyboard than I write, but I write faster than I can type on an onscreen keyboard, and especially faster than I can do so while holding the tablet cradled against one arm. For me it's a huge difference in actual productivity and what makes the extra few hundred dollars in cost actually worth it..

No ways, I type a lot faster on my iPad onscreen keyboard than handwriting. Much much faster. I wouldn't hold a large tablet like this in one hand for very long either.

This is so close to what I'm looking for. Just in case someone who can create such a system is reading this, what I want is:

1) Ability to "dock" this system at home or anywhere I can find a dock (work, airports, ...)2) Ability to use the device in a "limited" mode when not docked. * Content consumption. * Limited content creation if I'm willing to add to my travel kit..

No quite sure what you mean by "anywhere you can find a dock" If you mean a USB dock, I use one and it works quite well with this device and does drive two monitors. I'm a content creator and work quite well in VS2010 using this device.

Wow - it may be a matter of taste, but to me, it seems butt ugly. With or without the stickers. Even the keyboard makes me shudder. Just look at the positioning and spacing of the keys! With the fan noise, pathetic battery live and Windows 8, I think you would have to pay me to use one of those...

No offense meant to those who love it - I'm sure there's a good reason for that, too.

For the price, the lack of an active digitizer is a huge fail, for me at least. It's too bad, because a lot of the rest actually sounded fairly nice.

Personally speaking, that's the huge selling point to me on a more expensive full pc tablet. I can use a media consumption tablet (android/iPad/Touchpad/etc) for scrolling through web pages, ereading, mail, etc. What I can't do on a media consumption tablet is use it for taking notes in meetings, classes, etc, without having to really "set up" by taking out a keyboard and putting everything down on a desk. I type faster on a mechanical keyboard than I write, but I write faster than I can type on an onscreen keyboard, and especially faster than I can do so while holding the tablet cradled against one arm. For me it's a huge difference in actual productivity and what makes the extra few hundred dollars in cost actually worth it.

And while I could just bring a $1 pad of paper along with a media consumption tablet, the $1 pads of paper start to add up in weight and volume when you're talking about a few hundred pages of notes, in multiple categories/subjects. And it's one more thing to juggle. They also don't have full text search based on handwriting recognition that (surprise) actually works. /misses her Dell XT and OneNote.

Something you may want to look at is the Samsung ATIV Pro SmartPC. It was only around $700(plus accessories) and it works just fine for me as a tablet to take notes, work on class work, and some minor computing (full windows 8). It also has a pen for hand writing, hand writing recognition, and OneNote.

The only thing is that it uses the ATOM processor, which is not as powerful as some would like, but they are power efficient. The specs in general are not that impressive all around and that could be a turn off in general.

Acer really need to take lessons from Apple in how to market their product!

You should only talk up the virtues of the first version of your product and all that it offers so that as many people spend the money on it.

Then when you are ready to release a product that is actually usable and delivers on the promises you made for the first product then you should talk up the new product and point out all the obvious deficiencies of the old one.

There are a few caveats to this though:- it helps to have a brand with followers who think you are a divine gift from heaven and don't necessarily critically evaluate how good your products are- this works better with earlier versions of your product when the deficiencies of the old model are clear to everyone. Once your product lines get a bit more mature like the the current generation of iPhones or Android smartphones then you start getting lots of customers who are happy with the older and cheaper version.

Even at $999, I like the thought of having a handheld personal HTPC I can roam around the house with, and stream stuff from my home server to. Would make a nice full-fledged PC you can easily take on trips too. A fanless design is a must have though for a low power device that is so expensive. Fans breaking aren't a question of if, but when.

I've a 2004 laptop right next to me. Surprise, its fan only started to get louder in the past year or two. My 2005 tablet has a cranky fan, but is mostly good (and will run without it... good old 1.1ghz ULV!)

Now, back to the W700-A 8GB option would be nice-the lack of an active digitizer is a real shame.

Due to the latter, this isn't for me either. I would have swallowed the 6h battery life (my current one has roughly 5h+5h thanks to a second battery), but not the lack of a pen. I think it is a must in any windows-based tablet.

I played with the i3 model at the local OfficeMax. Seemed nice, felt good, and zipped along nicely when I loaded a fairly large PDF on it (16pg newspaper, tabloid size, fonts embedded, mixture of vector and raster graphics - used to work for them ^_^). I'd love to get one of Paizo's monster PDFs on there, just to see how well it performs.

I suspect the lack of SD card slots wasn't an oversight so much as planned obsolescence. You will, eventually, outgrow it, and thus be tempted to buy an upgrade in two years time or so. Pretty much like many smartphones where they don't let you bump up the storage - its simple card-stacking. I mean, wow, how big are SD cards now? It also provides a useful point of differentiation between models - speed AND storage, presumably with the higher cost models being the more profitable ones.

Personally? Don't they have those tiny little USB drives meant for netbooks? Fit snugly/flush against the side? Those might be options...

Thanks for the review. Is that the Surface RT, or the Surface Pro in the benches? I'm thinking that it's probably RT, since the Pro isn't out yet, but I'm not seeing anything obvious in the article. Also, I know that you're trying to compare tablets to tablets, but could I suggest adding an ultrabook or two into the benchmarks?

Thanks for the review. Is that the Surface RT, or the Surface Pro in the benches? I'm thinking that it's probably RT, since the Pro isn't out yet, but I'm not seeing anything obvious in the article. Also, I know that you're trying to compare tablets to tablets, but could I suggest adding an ultrabook or two into the benchmarks?

We try to use "official" nomenclature for products whenever possible, so "Surface" is always the Windows RT model and "Surface Pro" is always the Windows 8 model. We're apparently getting a Surface Pro in for review soon, but it's not here yet (the Surface Pro's performance should be pretty similar though).

Point well-taken re: Ultrabooks - the i5-3317U in the W700 posts the same numbers as in the other Ultrabook reviews we've done. Compare to the numbers for the Acer Timeline M5 in this chart and you'll see that the numbers are pretty similar (differences probably come down to the margin of error): http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/u ... kbench.png

Quote:ARM processors have gotten us used to quiet, fan-less tablets, but the W700 has a pair of vents on its top edge to help dissipate that Ivy Bridge CPU's heat. The noise isn't deafening but it's definitely audible, and once the tablet has been on for a few minutes they seldom shut off even if you're just sitting idle at the Start screen.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.